China began repatriating 200 of its citizens who worked in cyber fraud operations in Myanmar, the first batch returning from the centers international groups have said are a nexus of human rights abuses and criminal activity.

The political will to crack down on scam centers is greater than ever, but don’t expect the Chinese syndicates to be quashed any time soon, security expert Jason Tower tells The Irrawaddy.

An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centers in eastern Myanmar began Thursday, after the rescued workers were taken across the border to Thailand and put on chartered flights to China.

Myanmar’s military government said it is ready to hand over about 1,000 foreign nationals rescued from cyber scam centers near the Thai border as authorities vowed to intensify a crackdown against transnational criminal groups.

Over 1,000 Chinese nationals involved in Myanmar's online scam centers are being repatriated. Coordinated efforts by Thailand, China, and Myanmar have led to the closure of these centers, which exploited global victims with fraudulent schemes.

Myanmar authorities detained 273 foreigners from scam compounds along the border with Thailand on Monday, as a senior Chinese official visited frontier towns on both sides in a widening crackdown on illegal online operations.

China will fly home about 200 of its nationals found in scam-running compounds on the Thai-Myanmar border, a Thai security official said on Tuesday, as part of a multinational effort to crack down on illegal online operations run from the region.

Efforts to shut down online scam centers in Myanmar appear to gain momentum with a visit by a top Chinese official to the border zone ahead of expected large-scale repatriations of workers in the illi